"Begging You" is a song by The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...

, released as the final single before their break-up a year later, and was the third single from the album Second Coming

Second Coming (album)

Second Coming is the second studio album by The Stone Roses, released through Geffen Records on 5 December 1994 in the UK and in early 1995 in the US. It was recorded at Forge Studios in Oswestry, Shropshire and Rockfield Studios near Monmouth in Wales between 1992 and 1994...

. "Begging You" was released in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, peaking at #15 on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

.

"Begging You" was a loud cacophonous track with heavy drum beats, soaring guitars, pulsing bass and apocalyptic lyrics. John Squire

John Squire

John Thomas Squire is an English musician, songwriter and artist.Squire is best known as the guitarist for The Stone Roses, a rock band in which he formed a songwriting partnership with lead singer Ian Brown. After leaving The Stone Roses he went on to found The Seahorses and has since released...

 said that the song was loosely based on material from Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet

Fear of a Black Planet

Fear of a Black Planet is the third studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 10, 1990, on Def Jam Recordings and Columbia Records. Production for the album was handled by the group's production team The Bomb Squad, who expanded on the dense, sample-layered sound of the...

. The song also contains many references to Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...

.

The song was used on the Boys

Boys (1996 film)

Boys is a 1996 American film starring Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. The film was originally titled The Girl You Want. The film earned $516,350 in the United States box office. It is based on a short story called "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter....

(1996) film's soundtrack. In 2010, it was used by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 for its MotoGP

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP. The 125cc class uses a two-stroke engine while Moto2 and MotoGP use four-stroke engines. In 2010 the 250cc two-stroke was replaced...

 coverage.

Cover artwork

John Squire designed the "Begging You" cover with the insides of floppy disks. The disks were supposedly used to teach Squire how to use samplers

Sampler (musical instrument)

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

 and sequencers

Music sequencer

The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...

 for the track. Squire found the process too complicated and decided to smash the disks to use them for a piece of art instead.

Squire took the insides of the disks and set them in plaster

Plaster

Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

. He arranged them in a grid motif and painted the piece with colours "borrowed" from an Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

 painting.

Music video

The music video for "Begging You" featured strippers wearing masks of The Stone Roses. There were also scenes of the band playing a gig and traditional dances from various cultures. The hodgepodge of imagery was due to excessive creative freedom given by their record boss, David Geffen

David Geffen

David Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...

.

Track listing

12": [Geffen GEFST 22060]

1. "Begging You (Album Version)" (4:52)
2. "Begging You (Chic Mix)" (5:32)
3. "Begging You (Cox's Ultimatum Mix)" (6:33)
4. "Begging You (Stone Corporation Vox)" (6:24)

CS: [Geffen GFSC 22060]

1. "Begging You (Album Version)" (4:52)
2. "Begging You (Chic Mix)" (5:32)

CD: [Geffen GEFST 22060]

1. "Begging You (Album Version)" (4:52)
2. "Begging You (Lakota Mix)" (7:48)
3. "Begging You (Stone Corporation Vox)" (6:24)
4. "Begging You (Chic Mix)" (5:32)
5. "Begging You (Young American Primitive Remix)" (5:25)

CD: [Geffen Australia GEFDM 22061 "Australian Tour Edition"]

1. "Begging You (Album Version)" (4:52)
2. "Begging You (Lakota Mix)" (7:48)
3. "Begging You (Stone Corporation Vox)" (6:24)
4. "Begging You (Chic Mix)" (5:32)
5. "Begging You (Young American Primitive Remix)" (5:25)
6. "Begging You (Radio Edit Version)" (3:48)

Promo-CD: [Geffen WGSTD 22060]

1. "Begging You (Radio Edit)" (3:48)
2. "Begging You (Chic Edit)" (3:45)

Promo-12" [Geffen WGFST 22060]

1. "Begging You (Stone Corporation Vox)" (6:24)
2. "Begging You (Cox's Ultimatum Mix)" (6:34)
3. "Begging You (Overworld Mix)" (6:31)
4. "Begging You (Lakota Mix)" (7:48)

Promo-12" [Geffen WGFSX 22060]

1. "Begging You (Album Version)" (4:52)
2. "Begging You (Chic Mix)" (5:32)
3. "Begging You (Stone Corporation Dub)" (5:46)
4. "Begging You (Young American Primitive Remix)" (5:25)

External links

• The Stone Roses' discography